Monday, April 9, 2012

Week Summary: April 2 - 8

04-02-2012Mon-AM: 1:09, 2500' ~ Green Mt.
Up and down 1st Saddle. Drizzle and graupel means I had the trails to myself. Only 4hr of sleep due to jet lag. Hiking.

04-03-2012Tue-PM: 1:20, 2500' ~ Green Mt.
Up and down 1st Saddle with Scott. Afternoon ascent because jet lag caused me to frustratingly sleep in this morning. Weather was a rain/snow mix and there was 3-4" of snow on the summit. Casual pace, hiking.

04-04-2012Wed-AM: 1:19, 2800' ~ Green Mt.
Up and down 1st Saddle. Snappy legs, but the snow slowed me down on the top half of the mountain. Ran to the trailhead, hiked up the mountain, then ran all the way home. Shin cooperated, which was fantastic.

04-05-2012Thu-AM: 1:16, 2800' ~ Green Mt.
Up 3rd access, down 1st Saddle. All running except for from the base of the 2nd Flatiron to the summit (most of which I wouldn't be able to run even if healthy). Shin was solid.

04-06-2012Fri-AM: 1:17, 3000' ~ Green Mt.
Up and down 3rd access. 36:55 ascent from Chat, which I think is quite close to my PR on this line, but this didn't feel that focused. Ran everything again, except for the goat sections on the way up.PM: 1:04, 2000' ~ 2nd Flatiron-Flagstaff Mt.
Biked to Chat and then ran to the base of the 2nd with Buzz Burrell, Dave, and Dan Brillon. Scrambled the 2nd with Buzz and Dave, met back up with Dan, and then made our way over to the summit of Flagstaff. Met back down in Chat for Caballo's memorial. Really quality evening in the hills with good people even though I knew I was overstepping the capabilities of my shin a bit.

04-07-2012Sat-AM: 1:09, 2500' ~ Green Mt.
Up and down 1st Saddle. I knew my shin would be tweaked after yesterday, and it was, but not terrible. Biked to Chat and just limited myself to hiking.

04-08-2012Sun-AM: 1:25, 3000' ~ 2nd Flatiron+Green Mt.
Biked to Chat with Joe (running beside), hiked to the base of the 2nd, scrambled straight up the face, and bumped into Andy Ames and Bernie Boettcher (a pair of mountain racing icons) before heading to the summit. Shin was noticeably better today but I kept it to mostly hiking on the downhill, too, where we crossed paths with Dave and Jeff heading up. Glorious day on the mountain.

Hours: 10hr (about half of which was actual running)Vert: 21,000'

After 10 days off and four days of hiking, I tried very hard this week to not get over-ambitious in the spectacular spring weather Boulder has been experiencing, but Friday evening's outing was inevitable with the gathering of friends. I think I was able to avoid a serious setback with the shin, though. My plan/hope now is to abandon any immediate competitive ambitions and just listen very closely to the shin. I need to remain content with 60-90min outings for a long time, even if the shin is feeling great. I know I still have time to get ready for Hardrock if things fall into place (I'm not in terrible shape right now), but I'm mentally preparing myself for having to sit out that classic, if need be. I won't race Hardrock if it means re-injuring the shin; I still have faith that it can happen, though.

At the First Flatiron saddle with Mr. Mackey, Dan, and Buzz (behind the camera) Friday evening.

This video gives a great overview of the Tarawera Ultramarathon down in New Zealand--fantastic people, flawless organization, unique and high quality trails; I definitely plan on being back next year. Also, a big congratulations to Kiwi Vajin Armstrong for a convincing and impressive win at the American River 50 this past weekend. Vajin is one of the nicest dudes I've met on the circuit, and I think it's awesome that an international runner came over to win one of North America's spring ultra classics.

Anyone who has seen the Manitou Incline knows how impressive Ed's mission there on Saturday was. 1mi/2000' ascents (and descents! ouch!) with most in the 27-33min range. Pure nails and super inspiring no matter what age, let alone 58.

I've listened to this dozens and dozens of times already (new song starts at 3:45). Can't wait for their new album to come out in June!

I've been wearing them on trails and absolutely loving them. I've tried them on roads as well, and I love them just as much. But after only about 75 road miles, the soles seem to be wearing more than I expected. I've read that the 110s are designed so that they'll be suitable for road running, but I want your explicit opinion - do you agree? I've got other shoes I use for roads, but I'd really the 110s to be my every day shoes, roads and trails both. Is that realistic?

Conor - I think the shoe rides great on the road. I can't say that it wears very well, though, because we deliberately put a softer, stickier rubber on the outsole than what was on the 101s (which was quite hard and slick). I do a lot of moderate scrambling on my mountain runs and the softer rubber gives me extra traction/security on rock. The trade-off, however, is that it's not quite as durable.

Thanks for the response. What's the most comparable shoe to the 110 that you'd recommend for roads, then? I absolutely love the way that shoe feels, so much that I'd buy a new pair every 200 road miles if I could only keep wearing it. But that's not realistic money-wise.

Conor, any shoe from NB that uses the MNL-1 last should fit pretty similarly to the MT110.

You didn't ask me, but I run in the MT110 for trails and the Adidas Hagio for roads. I also run in the Nike Zoom Streak XC 2 but I prefer the wider forefoot and adizero foam on the Hagio. Both can be picked up for super cheap at runningwarehouse, use the discount code "runblog10" to get an additional 10% off.

The ideal in the Lieh-Tzu is a state, not of withdrawal, but of heightened perceptiveness and responsiveness in an undifferentiated world. My mind concentrated and my body relaxed, bones and flesh fused completely, I drifted with the wind East or West, like a leaf from a tree or a dry husk, and never knew whether it was the wind that rode me or I that rode the wind. -The Book of Lieh-Tzu